You can find Part One here and Part Two here.
Onto the final nine items on the list! I find this part particularly fun because it includes the baking items. A sweet tooth has to be well-equipped for making homemade goodies. As usual, items I own are in bold.
17) Kitchen tongs. Yes! Tongs are so useful that once you buy a pair, you won’t know how you lived without them. I’ve been known to give kitchen tongs as a gift, too—it’s one of those small touches that makes kitchen life easier and more fun.
18) Cutting-edge peeler. Hmm. This one is interesting: a peeler with a ring band that fits in the palm of your hand. I can see the utility in this one.
19) Hand-held juice press. Oh, I think this is so pretty! I have a countertop juice press—just a simple plastic number—but I really like these hand-held presses. Is it excessive to own two juice presses? Because I’m tempted to add this one to my wish list.
20) Salad spinner. I really should own one of these. I have bought one as a present, but my current method for drying greens is kitchen towels, which is tedious and not nearly as fun as a salad spinner.
21) Old-school hand mixer. Yes! Years ago, a friend of mine from grad school kindly donated her old hand mixer to me. To be honest, I don’t use it that much because I don’t do a lot of fancy baking that involves whipping cream or beating egg whites. Still, it’s nice to have around on the rare occasions when I do need a mixer besides my forearms.
22) Stainless steel mixing bowls. I have just one, a huge one, that you can see in the photo up there. I think it’s good to have at least one stainless steel bowl for beating egg whites and general mixing purposes. It also makes a great salad bowl when I’m making a huge salad to feed a crowd.
23) Kitchen scale. I wouldn’t mind having a kitchen scale, especially since I’m in love with rachel eats, and since Rachel is English, she’s always using metric units in her recipes.
24) Silicone baking mat. Yes, this one is nice to have around. It’s not essential because parchment paper does the same thing, but I love the look of cookies baking on a Silpat.
25) Commercial rimmed baking sheets. Yes! This is another one that I never realized I couldn’t live without until I owned one. My kitchen fairy bought me one of these years ago, and I absolutely love cooking and baking with it. I passed on the love by buying several for my sister-in-law’s kitchen, and I think the sheets get a lot of love over there too. (Mine are Wearever baking sheets from Target. This pan from Amazon looks identical to mine, if you are curious.)
PS I hope you don’t think I posted this series of Kitchen Must-Haves so I could get all link-happy on you. I am genuinely curious about what gear people consider essential in their kitchens and found it fun to think about my own kitchen in the same light. I am sort of obsessed with reading people’s lists for pantry staples, kitchen supplies, favorite tools, and whatnot. You can rest assured that I received exactly zero dollars in compensation for this post! I do it all for the love…and the cookies.
Speaking of…
It’s almost time for holiday baking: Raspberry Chocolate Thumbprints.
Easy-peasy, vegan, and so yummy.
Happy baking!
6 comments:
a scale is definitely used all the time (fell in love with the sleek one here http://www.amazon.com/Soehnle-Digital-Kitchen-Scale-Silver/dp/B000VRLQFA/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353420853&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=sohele+scale), i opt for my stoneware sheet pan (http://www.pamperedchef.com/ordering/prod_details.tpc?prodId=174&catId=9&parentCatId=9&outletSubCat=) instead of a silpat or parchment-- it's so well-seasoned I don't usually need those things!
sorry i have no idea how to insert links nicely! :/
Out of all three parts to this list, I only own one item: tongs. I do love those tongs and cannot live without them, but the other must-haves aren't really musts for me. I suppose I *would* need a hand mixer if I really needed to whip something, but I guess I never make that kind of thing. I have an old-school blender (no food processor or vita mix) and tend to use a whisk instead of a hand or stand mixer -- that's pretty representative of my kitchen style: super, super basic. Anyway, I have just recently decided that I HAVE to buy a coffee grinder, though, because a recent accidental-decaf purchase (THE HORROR) can be blamed on the limitation of having to buy pre-ground coffee. So I think I'll be adding to my super-basic kitchen soon...
Shannon, cool! Thanks for the links. I had never heard of stoneware sheet pans--how neat are those! Oh, and here is a guide for how to add links in a pretty way if you are curious.
:-) But it's much faster to use your method!
Wow, Kate! Your comment made me laugh, and it speaks to how insanely awesome tongs are. A coffee grinder sounds great: your coffee will taste really fresh and flavorful, and now you can buy whatever beans strike your fancy. I do wonder, though, if you've ever bought whole beans at a coffee shop and asked them to grind them for you? I have done this at several shops around town, and they are always happy to do the grinding for me. (Starbucks, for example, will grind whole beans for you.)
Oh, and Kate: those vegan cookies up there don't require much more than a whisk and a bowl to mix them together. Perfect for the low-tech baker! (And I think they're pretty too.)
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